A game, or at least a yearning, six decades in the making gripped Manila as preseason game normally could not, as finally the Rockets and Pacers put on the show they had promised, inspired it seemed to have been cherished so greatly.

As the game moved to its final seconds, with the Rockets dribbling out the clock on a 116-96 wire-to-wire rout of last season’s Eastern Conference Finalists, the crowd roared and then rose to offer a final salute.

“It was a good experience. It was a fun night,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale. “It had a nice vice, a nice amount of energy in the arena.”

They had gotten what they came for, particularly if they had been hoping to see the Rockets’ offense roll. For the second preseason game, the Rockets starters had dominant stretches with James Harden leading the Rockets with 18 points in his 24 minutes before sitting tout out the entire fourth quarter. Patrick Beverley started at point guard with Jeremy Lin coming off the bench and made four of five shots with his 12 points, adding four assists, four steals and his usual sticky to the point of annoying defense.

“He’s going to start next game,” McHale said of his plan to rotate Lin and Beverley in the preseason starting lineups. “We’re still trying to figure things out. They both played very well. A lot of it is about trying to get as many people as possible playing well.”

Chandler Parsons went 6 of 9 for his 15 points. Donatas Motiejunas and Omri Casspi combined for 33, blowing the game open in the fourth quarter.

Yet for all, the Rockets had to find encouraging in the strong performance, they could not have been as happy as those that witnessed it.

For all the trappings of NBA basketball, complete with the music and dancers, acrobats and mascots, there was something of a different feel to the event.

More than two-and-a-half hours before the game, when the Rockets second team bus arrived, it was greeted with raucous cheers of ‘Rockets, Rockets, Rockets’ as players made their way into the arena. And when James Harden, halfway to the lockerroom, turned and returned to the throngs pressed against the metal barricades, bringing out a camera to video the scene as he pumped his fist.

Yet when the game began, the crowd at first might have seemed like any NBA crowd, but there was a difference, too.

For the most part, the fans in Mall of Asia Arena sounded like typical NBA fans, much as they were described. They were generally quiet, with a smattering of Lin and Harden shirts mixed among the crowd (including one fan in the front row who wore Lin’s Harvard uniform).

Yet, it soon became clear that they were watching the game too intently, studying almost, for the madness accompanied team appearances through the week. They reacted to everything. The excitement level rising when Lin – who came off the bench – had the ball, but there were cheers for everything accomplished, and not just highlights.

Chandler Parsons and Donatas Motiejunas finished breaks with slams and the crowd cheered, but they had already reacted to the passes from Harden and Lin that set them up. They groaned when Dwight Howard picked up his fifth foul in the third quarter after a game on what appeared to be a Roy Hibbert flop in which Howard had shut down the towering Pacers center. But they also cheered comically when Howard made his first free throw, clearly keenly aware of his shooting issues from the line.

In the fourth quarter, when Lin passed out of a double-team to a cutting Ronnie Brewer and Brewer sent a slick dish inside to Casspi, the cheers began even before Omri Casspi put in his reverse for a three-point play and a 12-point Rockets lead.

Much of the crowd arrived late, stalled by the near-monsoon storm that hit Manila. But once they got to their seats, no one left. There did not seem to be anyone in the crowd with any food or drink as if that would be a distraction.

As with many NBA games, the loudest cheers were to get giveaway t-shirts, but in the fourth quarter, when YMCA played, relatedly few joined in. They were here for the basketball. They had waited long enough.

Photo: Bullit Marquez / Associated Press

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Isaiah Canaan and Chandler Parsons of the Rockets interact with young basketball fans in the Philippines.

Isaiah Canaan and Chandler Parsons of the Rockets interact with young basketball fans in the Philippines.

Photo: Bullit Marquez / Associated Press

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Chandler Parsons of the Rockets interact with young basketball fans in the Philippines.

Chandler Parsons of the Rockets interact with young basketball fans in the Philippines.